GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 75 ber of the Xenia city school board. He is a Republican. The Doctor is a Royal Arch Mason, affiliated with the blue lodge, the chapter and the council,. Royal and Select Masters, at Xenia, and is also affiliated with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the local camp of the Sons of Veterans. Not long after entering upon his regular practice at Xenia, Doctor Messenger bought the house at the northeast corner of Second and Detroit streets and still resides there, with offices in the building. For the past year or more the Doctor has had associated with him in practice his son, Dr. Harold C. Messenger, a graduate of the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, who became associated with his father in practice at Xenia after a year as interne in the Miami Valley Hospital at Dayton, and is now the secretary of the Greene County Medical Society. On October 8, 1889, in his old home county of Jackson, Dr. A. C. Messenger was united in marriage to Amanda. L. Long, who also was born in that county, daughter of Elias and Emily (Carrick) Long, who are still living on their farm in Jackson county, the former the oldest native-born resident of the city of Jackson. Elias Long is a son of Elias Long and wife, who settled in Jackson county in 1804 and the former of whom became a pioneer merchant at Jackson. The junior Elias Long has for many years been a retired farmer in the neighborhood of Jackson. Mrs. Messenger was graduated from the Jackson (Ohio) high school in 1886 and attended Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio. Mrs. Messenger is an active member of the Junior Woman's Club, also of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution of which latter organization she was regent for four years. Doctor and Mrs. Messenger have three children, Harold C., Lois and Emily, all of whom are at home. Dr. Harold C. Messenger was born on January i0, 1891, and after his graduation from the Xenia high school took a literary course, at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, and at Dennison University at Granville and then entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1914. For a year thereafter he was stationed as an interne in the Miami Valley Hospital at Dayton and then entered general practice, in association with his father, at Xenia. In 1917 Doctor H. C. Messenger married Nelle Fairbanks, of Springfield, Ohio. Lois Messenger was born on December 9, 1895, and was graduated from the Xenia high school in 1914. Emily Messenger, born on March 15, 1898, was graduated from the Xenia high school, in 1915. The following fall she began her collegiate work at Denison University and later entered the National School of Domestic Art and Science at Washington, D. C., from which she was graduated in 1917. The Messengers are members of the First Presbyterian church and the elder Doctor has been a member of the session of that church for the past twenty-five years. 76 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO CAPT. ANDREW S. FRAZER. Capt. Andrew S. Frazer, a veteran of the Civil War, former county auditor, former president of the Xenia National Bank, with the directorate of which institution he still is connected, as well as retaining connection with various others of the most important commercial and industrial concerns of Xenia, is a native son of Ohio and has lived in this state all his life, a resident of Greene county since he was twelve years of age. The Captain was born at Russellville, down in Brown county, October 15, 1836, a son of John F. and Sarah (Kelly) Frazer, the former of whom was born in the state of Pennsylvania and the latter in Kentucky, who later became residents of Greene county, John F. Frazer for years being one of the leading merchants in the village of Cedarville. The Frazers are of Scottish origin, originally hailing from the Highlands, but were transplanted into Ireland, whence, from County Down, came John F. Frazer's father, a weaver, who settled in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he established his home and pursued his vocation, later moving to Brown county, this state, where he spent his last days. John F. Frazer was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and there learned the trade of a tanner, afterward locating at Russellville, in Brown county, this state, and continuing thus engaged at that place until the spring of 1837, when he moved with his family to Decatur, this state, where he made his home until in December, 1848, when he came to Greene county and located at Cedarville, where he bought a half interest in a general store and went into business there, the establishment operating under the firm name of Mitchell & Frazer. He presently bought his partner's interest in the store and continued active in business there until his retirement in 1885, having thus been in business at Cedarville for a period of nearly forty years. John F. Frazer was an ardent Abolitionist and during the clays preceding the Civil War was one of the most active "conductors" on the "underground railroad" operating- throughout this part of the state, in that capacity having helped on his way many a negro seeking freedom. He took an active part in local and state politics and was a delegate from this district to the first convention of the Republican party, held at Pittsburgh in February, 1856. During the progress of the Civil War he was enrolled among Ohio's famous "Squirrel Hunters," and while acting in that relation helped repel Morgan's invaders. He was an active member of the United Presbyterian church and a leader in local good works. John F. Frazer died at his home in Cedarville in August, 1890. He had been four times married and was the father of eight children, three of whom, the late James K. Frazer, of Sandusky, this state; Margaret, wife of H. P. Jackson, of Cedarville, and Captain Frazer, were born of his union with Sarah Kelly, his first wife, who died at her home in Brown county in GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 77 1846. Of the others there now survive : Mrs. Flora Utter, of Crawfordsville, Indiana ; Nettie, wife of Lee Nash, of Xenia township, this county ; W. S. Frazer, of Springfield, this state, and John H. Frazer, cashier of a bank at Newcastle, Pennsylvania. Andrew S. Frazer was but six months of age when his parents moved from Russellville to Decatur and in the latter place his childhood was spent. He was ten years of age when his mother died and for two years thereafter he made his home with an uncle, Samuel Mehaffy, at Ripley, rejoining his father at Cedarville in 1848, he then being twelve years of age. In the meantime he had been receiving instruction at Grove Academy and upon his arrival at Cedarville pursued his studies in that village, completing his schooling in the academy at that time conducted there by Turnbull & Amyx. During the winters of 1855-6-7 he taught school in Cedarville township and' was there an intimate friend and chum of Whitelaw Reid, afterwards editor of the New York Tribune and at the time of his death United States ambassador to England. In the meantime he had been acquiring, a detailed 'knowledge of business forms in his father's store and in 1859 engaged in business for himself, in association with John Gibney opening a merchant-tailoring establishment and general clothing store at Cedarville, and was thus engaged at the time of the breaking out of the Civil War. In April, 1861, following President. Lincoln's first call for volunteers to put down the armed rebellion against the Union, he enlisted his services as a private in Company F, Thirty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and when that company presently was merged with a company from Clermont county was elected second lieutenant of the same, the company reporting to Camp Dennison in August. In September the command went into camp at Charleston, Virginia (now West Virginia), and a few days later, in that vicinity, had its first contact with armed rebels. On September 25th the command moved to Chapmansville and in October moved thence to Barboursville, where it spent the winter in camp; in the spring of 1862 moving camp to Kanawha Falls and thence to Fayetteville, all this time being in almost constant touch with bushwhackers. During that spring the command participated in the battle of Princeton and in the fall of that year, September 25, 1862, Lieutenant Frazer received a wound which came near causing his death and from the effects of which he has suffered ever since. That was at the battle of Fayetteville, where his men were attacking a band of rebels five times their number, and he received a ball through the hip. The jail at that town was being used as a temporary hospital and he was removed there for first aid treatment, that night being put in a wagon and hauled over Cotton mountain to the river, where he was put into a bateau and taken down to Gallipolis, where he remained. in the hospital for eight weeks, at the end of 78 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO which time his father was permitted to bring him home on a hospital cot. The Captain was very severely wounded and he was not able to arise from bed until in March, 1863, and it was not until in June that he was able to walk with the assistance of .a cane which has been his constant aid ever since. Incapacitated for active service Captain Frazer resigned his commis- sion and received his honorable discharge. In the meantime his business affairs had been neglected during his absence and it became necessary to close out his interest in the store. at Cedarville. In the fall of 1864 the Captain was the nominee of his party for county auditor, but was defeated. In 1866, . however, he was renominated and was elected, entering the court house as auditor of Greene county on March 4, 1867. By successive re-elections he occupied the position of county auditor for sixteen years and eight months and during that long incumbency inaugurated a system of audits that is still observed there. In November, 1883, Captain Frazer became engaged in closing up the affairs of the First National Bank of Xenia, then in liquidation, and in September, 1885, entered the Xenia National Bank, which had reorganized the affairs of the former bank, and in January, 1886, was made cashier of that institution. Captain Frazer continued as cashier of the Xenia National Bank for nearly twenty-five years, or until the annual meeting of the board of directors in January, 1910, when he declined re-election, though still retaining his stock in the bank and a place on the directorate. He was then made vice-president of the bank and in the next year, 1911, was elected president of the same, a position he occupied for three years, since which time he has still continued to serve as a member of the board of directors, declining further more active office. It is not too much to say that much of the present strength of the Xenia National Bank is due to Captain Frazer's long and active connection with the same, a statement which the Captain modestly might deprecate but which his friends and the business community in general freely concede. Captain Frazer also has for years had other important business connections in Xenia and is at present vice-president and a member of the board of directors of the Hooven-Allison Company, cordage manufacturers, and a member of the board of directors of the Home Building and Saving Company, one of the wealthiest institutions in the county. To other affairs along helpful lines the Captain also has for years given his attention and he thus has been one of the strongest and most influential factors in the. community life of this region since the Civil War. For the past six years he has been. a member of the board of trustees of the Greene County Children's Home and is the present president of the board. He also served for two years' as a member of the board of trustees of the Ohio State Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home at Xenia, in the affairs of which institution he has for many years taken a warm interest. The Captain is a mem- GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 79 ber of the First United Presbyterian church and for the past six years or more has been a member of the board of trustees of the Theological Seminary at Xenia, of which for years he has been an enthusiastic supporter. When the church congregation with which he is affiliated decided to erect a new house of worship in 1910 the Captain was made chairman of the. building committee and in that capacity had practical charge of the erection of the church edifice, one of the handsomest and most completely appointed in this part of the state. Captain Frazer is a charter member of the Ohio State Bankers Association, which was founded in 1891, and in the affairs of which he has ever taken a warm interest. Since 1886 he has been a member of the board of directors of the Dayton & Western branch of the Pennsylvania Lines and is also a director of the Little Miami Railroad. He is an ardent Republican and has for many years been recognized as one of the leaders in that party in this part of the state, but since his service in the county auditor's office has not been an aspirant for public office. During the time of the, active existence of the local post .of the Grand Army of the Republic at Cedarville, the Captain was one of the chief promoters of the same, retaining his membership there at his old home, though a resident of Xenia, and for some time served as commander of the post. He also is a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Captain Frazer has been twice married. On November 2, 1870, he was united in marriage to Jennie Mitchell, of Attica, Indiana, who died in October, 1885, leaving two children, Clarence S. and Katie, the latter of whom married William A. Cork and is now living at Toronto, Canada, where her husband is engaged in government service. Clarence S. Frazer, a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume, is one of Xenia's best-known merchants, having for years been successfully engaged there in the shoe business. In October, 1887, Captain Frazer married Ruby. H. Sexton, of Rushville, Indiana, who is still living. In 1867 the Captain erected at 118 West Third street a comfortable brick house and there he and his wife are very pleasantly situated. It is not generally known in the community, or perhaps forgotten by all save his old Cedarville neighbors, that Captain Frazer came near becoming a Kansan, which would have been a loss. to Greene county, indeed. During the troublous days preceding the Civil War when Kansas was "debatable ground" and the scene of numerous fierce encounters between the Jayhawkers and border ruffians who were determined to fasten the institution of slavery upon the new territory and the opponents of that institution, who were just as determined that when Kansas did come into the sisterhood of states- it should be as a free state, he accompanied a party of young men from Greene county to Kansas Territory to help swell the forces of human freedom there and remained there from April to Sep- 80 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO tember, 1857, during that time helping to lay out the town of Emporia. In that party of Greene county young men was P. B. Plum, who put in his lot definitely with that of bleeding Kansas and who became a United States senator from that state. DANIEL McMILLAN STEWART. Daniel McMillan Stewart, veteran of the Civil War, banker, former member of the city council and for many years actively identified with the various interests of his home town and of Greene county in general, and who is now living practically retired from the more active affairs of life in his pleasant home at Xenia, is one of Greene county's native sons and has maintained his home here all his life, though formerly and for some years his business interests required that he spend much of his time in the West. He was born on a farm on the Jamestown pike, just one mile east of the court house in Xenia, March 17, 1840, son of William H. and Esther (McMillan) Stewart, both of whom were born in South Carolina, members of families that became pioneers in Greene county. William H. Stewart was born at York, South Carolina, in 1809, and was nine years of age when his parents, Samuel and Elizabeth (Hart) Stewart, left that section, where they also had been born, and came over into this section of Ohio in 1818, settling on what is now known as the Collins farm on the Jamestown pike in this county. Samuel Stewart and his wife were members of the old Associate Reformed church, which after the "union" of 1858 became merged with the Associate church, the two forming the United Presbyterian church, and were bitterly opposed to the institution of slavery which had become fastened upon their native state and thus they disposed of their interests in South Carolina and came out into a free state. Upon his arrival here Samuel Stewart became the owner of two hundred acres of wood tract and with the assistance of his four elder sons cleared and developed the same. He was an ardent Abolitionist and took an active part in the anti-slavery agitation of his day. The few slaves which had come to him in his native state he brought out here with him and gave them their freedom. He lived for more than twenty-five years after coming to Greene county, his death occurring in 1846. He and his wife were active in the work of the Associated Reformed church and their children were reared in that faith. There were twelve of these children, all of whom lived to rear families of their own, except one, who died unmarried. William H. Stewart grew up here a tall, raw-boned man of sinewy frame and of great muscular .strength. He received but limited schooling in his youth, but by self-study in after years became a very well-informed man. GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 81 Much of the time during his youth was spent with his ax in the woods. At that time the nearest real market was at Cincinnati, sixty-five miles away, and occasional trips would have to be made there for supplies. When about twenty-five years of age he married and located on a farm of one hundred acres on the Jamestown pike, one mile east of the court house in Xenia, established his home there and on that place all his children were born. When the Pennsylvania railroad came along and cut through his farm he left the place and bought a tract of one hundred and seventeen acres, the old Adams place, in the neighborhood of Cedarville, where he remained until 1870, in which year he retired from the farm and moved to Xenia, establishing his home in King street,, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there on April 23, 1889 he then being past seventy-eight years of age. William H. Stewart had become a Republican upon the formation of that party. Reared as an adherent of the Associate Reformed church, he later became a member of the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) church.   William H. Stewart was twice married, his first wife, Esther McMillan., having died in 1856, after which he married Eliza Bradford, who survived him many years, her death occurring in 1912. That second union was without issue. Esther McMillan was born at Chester, South Carolina, September 14, 1814, daughter of Daniel and Jeannette B. (Chestnut) McMillan, who became residents of Greene county in 1832 and here spent the remainder of their lives. Daniel McMillan was born in County Antrim, Ireland, on August 1, 1776, son of Hugh and Jane (Harvey) McMillan, natives of that same county, the former born in 1750, who were married there in 1775 and who came to this country in 1786, settling in South Carolina. Hugh McMillan and his wife were members of the Covenanter (Reformed Presbyterian) church and with four other families of that same faith decided to emigrate to the newly established United States of America. After an ocean voyage of nine weeks they landed at Charleston and shortly afterward located in the Chester district, in South Carolina, where they purchased land and established a church of their faith. Hugh McMillan died there on January 5, 1818, at the age of sixty-six years. His widow survived him until 1825, she being seventy-five years of age at the time of her death. They were the parents of seven children, Daniel, John, Mary, Gavin, David, James and Hugh.   Daniel McMillan was ten years of age when he came with his parents to this country and his youth was spent on the farm on Rocky creek, in the Chester district of South Carolina, remaining on that farm until 1794, when the family moved to a farm which the father had bought on Bull run, in the same neighborhood. When twelve years of age Daniel McMillan fell and suffered a fracture of the thigh bone, the accident rendering him a cripple. When eighteen years of age he suffered a second fracture of the same bone   (5)   82 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO   and thereafter was compelled to use both a crutch and a staff. He began teaching school and for eight years thereafter was engaged in teaching. In the meantime, in the spring of 1806, he married and, having saved the sum of five hundred dollars, engaged in the mercantile business in partnership with his wife's brother, James Chestnut. In 1830 Hugh and Gavin McMillan, his brothers, came over into Ohio on a mission in behalf of the Reformed Presbyterian church and while visiting the church of that faith in Greene county became greatly impressed by the outlook in this region. Upon their return home so enthusiastic were their praises concerning the settlement here that the whole family decided to come out here, and in 1832 the sons of the elder Hugh McMillan, with their respective families, came to Greene county. Daniel McMillan bought an improved farm a mile and half east of Xenia and there spent the rest of his life. He was an elder in the Reformed Presbyterian church and enthusiastic in its service, riding horseback to Pittsburgh to attend the presbyterial meetings of the same. An ardent Abolitionist, he had freed the slaves his wife had inherited, to the number of 0ne hundred, and upon coming here became one of the active "conductors" on the "underground railroad," furnishing teams and other means to aid in the transportation of runaway slaves to free soil.   It was on March 11, 1806 that Daniel McMillan was united in marriage to Jeannette B. Chestnut, who was then not sixteen years of age. She was a daughter of Col. James and Esther (Stormont) Chestnut, who lived eight miles north of Rocky Creek, in the Chester district of South Carolina. Col. James Chestnut, who was an officer of the patriot army during the Revolutionary War, was at one time captured and was sentenced by the Tories to be hanged. The place of execution was fixed, but before the hour for the same came around a party of General Washington's soldiers appeared on the scene and rescued him. To Daniel and Jeannette B. (Chestnut) McMillan were born twelve children, of whom ten lived to maturity, namely : Jane, who married the Rev. Ebenezer Cooper, a minister of the Reformed Presbyterian church, and died in 1888; James C., born in 1810, who also became an active church worker and who was thrice married, his first wife having been Margaret Millen, his second, Christiana Moody, and his third, Mary Reece; Mary, who married the Rev. Robert McCoy, a minister of the Reformed Presbyterian church, and died without issue ; Esther, mother of the subject of this biographical review ; Martha, born in 1817, who married Samuel Dallas and died on February 27, 1898; Margaret, who married David Millen, of Xenia, and died without issue; Nancy S., born in 1822, who married Joseph Kendall, a farmer of Greene county ; the Rev. John McMillan, born in 1826, who married Elizabeth Walton, was for years the pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian church at the corner of Fifteenth and Lombard streets, Phila-   GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 83   delphia, and who died on August 30, 1882 ; Jeannette, born in 1829, who married James D. Liggett, a Xenia lawyer and onetime editor of the Xenia Torchlight, and Daniel, born on May 6, 1832, who married Elizabeth Bennett and became a farmer and stockman in this county. William H. Stewart and Esther McMillan were united in marriage on May 6, 1837, and to that union were born eight children, of whom Daniel M. Stewart is now the only survivor. Four of these children died in infancy, one died at the age of twenty years, another died at the age of twenty-one, and the other, James R. Stewart, who married Rachel Dallas, spent his last days at Springfield, Missouri, his death occurring there on April 24, 1912.   Daniel McMillan Stewart spent his early youth on the home farm on the Cedarville pike and was fourteen years of age when his father moved to the Cedarville neighborhood in 1854, after which he attended the Cedarville schools, there coming under the instruction of Professor Orr and James Turnbull. He later attended a couple of terms at the Urbana Institute and in 1860 matriculated at Monmouth College, but was taken ill with diphtheria at the outset of his college career and was compelled to return home, where for some time afterward he was in a poor state of health. When the- Civil War broke out he desired to enlist, but was unable to do so on account of the state of his health. He was able, however, later to enter the service with the hundred-day men and thus served as a member of Company F, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Stewart returned home and became engaged in farming, his father giving him the old home place east of Xenia. He later became engaged in the real-estate and insurance business at Xenia, buying his grandfather's farms of three hundred and sixty-five acres, disposed of them and bought a farm in Champaign county and has ever since been more or less engaged in the real-estate business in and about Xenia. After his marriage in 1877 he established his home in Xenia, where his wife planned the erection of the brick house at I14 West Third street, where he still lives, and that has ever since been his established home, though for some years afterward much of his time was spent in the West. It was about the time of his marriage that Mr. Stewart became engaged as an agent for the sale of railroad lands along the line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad and he was thus engaged for seven years, or until the lands were closed out. He then became engaged in the lead-mining business at Joplin, Missouri, and after operating with more or less success in that section for fifteen years "struck it rich" when he opened the "Get There" mine at Webb City, Missouri, which he developed and operated. for three years, at the end of which time he leased the mine and later, in 1896, sold it. Since that time Mr. Stewart has devoted his time to his real-estate and other interests in and about   84 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO   Xenia. For years he has been a member of the board of directors of the Xenia National Bank, for the past fifteen years vice-president of the same. Mr. Stewart is a Republican and for twelve years served as a member of the Xenia city council. He is a member of the United Presbyterian church and for the past thirty years has been a member of the board of trustees of the Xenia Theological Seminary. Mr. Stewart is a member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic.   On January I, 187.7, Daniel M. Stewart was united in marriage to Harriet Bonner, who was born on a farm on the lower Bellbrook pike, in Xenia township; this county, and who died in April, 1908, at her home in Xenia. Mrs. Stewart was a daughter of the Rev. James R. and Martha (Gowdy) Bonner, the former of whom at the time of her birth was pastor of the First Reformed Presbyterian church at Xenia and the latter of whom was a. member of the numerous Gowdy .family which came up here from Kentucky in 1806. To Mr. and Mrs. Stewart one child was born, a daughter, Lunette Belle, who was graduated from the seminary at Washington, Pennsylvania, and who on December 24, 1906, was united in marriage to Charles Murdock Kelso, a consulting engineer and contractor, of Dayton. Mr. and Mrs. Kelso have one child, a daughter, Mary Stewart Kelso, born on September 5, 1909, whom Mr. Stewart regards as "the apple of his eye."   IDA CLERKE WOOLSEY, M. D.   Dr. Ida Clerke Woolsey, who has been engaged in the practice of medicine in Xenia since the completion of her college work in 1893, is a native of the neighboring Hoosier state, but has been a resident of Ohio since she was five years of age, her parents having moved from Indiana to Cincinnati when she was a child, and in the Queen City she grew to womanhood. The Woolseys have been identified with Xenia for many years, Doctor Woolsey's grandfather, Dr. Jeremiah Woolsey, of notable memory, having been one of the first real physicians to locate in that city and during his long residence there was one of the most conspicuous and influential figures in the professional life of the city. Dr. Jeremiah Woolsey had his office at the corner of Main and Detroit streets and was the first physician to give prominence to the fallacy of the old practice of "starving a fever." When he began to treat his fever patients by the reverse method it is recalled that there was no little . local apprehension regarding the probable outcome of such a distinct departure from tradition, but his "feed a fever" theory soon proved its efficacy and the medical profession was advanced by so much. Dr. Jeremiah Woolsey also was one of the leaders in the labors of promoting the material interests of Xenia and was the chief promoter of the construction of the Springfield   GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 85   branch of the Pennsylvania railroad, the line that runs through Xenia in Detroit street. In other ways he contributed of his services and his energies to the upbuilding and betterment of the community and at his passing left a good memory.   Dr. William Montgomery Woolsey, a son of Dr. Jeremiah Woolsey and father of Dr. Ida C. Woolsey, was born at Trenton, New Jersey, where the Woolseys had been established since colonial days, one of the well-to-do families of that city and of the city of Baltimore, and in Trenton he received his schooling, supplementing a thorough classical education by the study of medicine and in due time was licensed to practice medicine. For a time he maintained an office in Trenton and then came West, locating at Hamilton, in this state, where he for a time conducted a drug store in connection with his practice. He married in Cincinnati and later moved to Evansville, Indiana, but after a few years of practice there returned to Cincinnati, reentered the drug business in that city and there spent the rest of his life, quite successfully engaged in mercantile pursuits, his death occurring in 1883. His widow survived him about four years. She was born in Cincinnati, Hannah Clerke Hall, a daughter of Ezekiel and Elizabeth Hall, early and influential residents of that city, the latter of whom was one of the seven founders of the Cincinnati Orphans Asylum. The Halls came to Ohio from Baltimore and when they located in Cincinnati there was but one brick house in the place. The Hon. James C. Hall, a son of Ezekiel Hall and for two terms United States senator from Ohio, was one of the most prominent residents of Toledo during his day and, in association with Major James Oliver, bought and laid out one of the chief additions to that now thriving city.   To Dr. William Montgomery and Hannah Clerke (Hall) Woolsey were born eleven children, those besides the subject of this biographical review being as follow : Thompson, who died at Cincinnati when sixteen years of age; Montgomery Hall, who also died in youth; Samuel Parker, who went to the Northwest and married and established his home in Washington Territory; Mrs. Mary Robinson, who is living at Peru, Illinois, and who has two children, Ora and Eva; Martha Elizabeth, who died in Xenia in 1906; Clara Marie, who died in Cincinnati in 1875 ; Frances Virginia, who died during the days of her girlhood; James Hall, who married Therese Beatty, of St. Louis, and spent his last days in that city ; William Hall, who died in youth, and George Walker, -who married Mary Berger, of Connersville, Indiana, and moved from that city in 1886 to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1888.   Ida Clerke Woolsey was but five years of age when her parents moved from Evansville, Indiana, to Cincinnati and in the latter city she grew to womanhood, receiving her early schooling in the public schools of that city.   86 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO   In 1870 she entered Vassar College at Poughkeepsie, New York, and followed a three-years course in that institution. In 1889 she entered the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and was graduated from that institution in 1892, having qualified as a practitioner in both the Regular and in the Homeopathic schools of medicine. She then for a year pursued a further and special course at Ann Arbor and in 1893 opened an office in Xenia and has ever since been engaged in practice in that city, making a specialty of the diseases of women and children. Doctor Woolsey is a member of the Second Presbyterian church.   BENJAMIN FRANKLIN THOMAS.   Benjamin Franklin Thomas, who for nearly ten years has been serving the people of Greene county as county recorder, is a native son of Greene county, born on a farm in Silvercreek township on April 9, 1871, son of Joshua B. and Martha J. (Lucas) Thomas, also natives of this county and members of old families hereabout, and both of whom are now deceased.   Joshua B. Thomas was a son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Bayliff) Thomas, the former of whom was born in 1800 and who was about ten years of age when he came to this county with his parents, the family settling in Silvercreek township about 1810, pioneers of that community, where the Thomases ever since have been represented, the family connection in this generation now being a quite numerous one throughout this part of the state. Benjamin Thomas and wife were members of the old Mt. Carmel Methodist Protestant church. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom Joshua B., born on the home farm in Silvercreek township on June 27, 1827, was the third in order of birth. Joshua B. Thomas grew to manhood on the home farm and after his marriage bought his father's home place of one hundred and twenty acres in Silvercreek and Jefferson townships and there established his home. He later bought additional land, sixty-seven acres, in New Jasper and Caesarscreek townships. He and his wife were members of the Mt. Carmel Methodist Episcopal church. Joshua B. Thomas died at his farm home in 1881, he then being fifty-six years of age. His widow survived him about sixteen years, her death occurring in 1907, she then being sixty-seven years of age.   On May 19, 1859, Joshua B. Thomas was united in marriage to Martha J. Lucas, who was born in Jefferson township, this county, a daughter of John and Nancy (Harness) Lucas, both of whom also were born in this county, members of pioneer families, and one of whose children, Mrs. Elizabeth Hite, is still living in this county, a venerable resident of the Bowersville neighborhood. To Joshua B. and Martha J. (Lucas) Thomas were born ten children,   GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 87   namely : Mary Elizabeth, who married J. L. Fawcett and lives in Caesarscreek township; Jacob A., who died in infancy ; Nancy Margaret, now deceased, who was the wife of Louis A. Gerard ; Sarah Ellen, wife of Granville Gultice, of Xenia ; Anna Lucretia, wife of H. E. Powers, of Jefferson township ; Hannah L., who died in childhood ; Benjamin Franklin, the subject of this sketch; Joshua Sanford, who is still living on the old home farm in Silver-creek township ; Hattie J., wife of Alvin E. Stingley, a resident of the neighboring county of Clinton, and John Lewis, who married Blanche McGath and lives at Alpha, this county.   Reared on the home farm in Silvercreek township, Benjamin F. Thomas received his schooling in the schools of that neighborhood. He was but ten years of age when his father died and he remained at home until his marriage at the age of twenty-three years, when he bought and continued to operate a part of the home place. In 1905 he disposed of his interests there and with his -wife moved to Xenia, where he became engaged as a clerk in a hardware store, a sarcomatous development on his right leg having incapacitated him for the labors of the farm. Two years later he was compelled to go to the hospital, where his leg was amputated, and for nearly two years thereafter he was laid up. During the campaign of 1908 Mr. Thomas received the Republican nomination for the office of recorder of Greene county and was elected to that office. By successive re-elections he has been continuously since retained in that office, now serving his ninth year as recorder. Mr. Thomas is a Republican. He and his wife are members of Trinity Methodist Episcopal church at Xenia. Mr. Thomas is a member of the local lodges of the Knights of Pythias and of the Benevolent and Fraternal Order of Elks. He and his wife have their home at 32 East Third street.   On October 11, 1894, Benjamin F. Thomas was united in marriage to Anna Belle Curry, who was horn at Oskaloosa, Iowa, September 27, 1872, a daughter of James L. and Abigail (Smith) Curry, both of whom were born and reared in Greene county, members of old families in Jefferson township, and whose last days were spent in Iowa. James L. Curry was reared as a farmer in Jefferson township and after his marriage began farming there on his own account, but his health presently failing he moved to Oskaloosa, Iowa, where. he began clerking in a hardware store and where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring on September 21, 1880, he then being but thirty-one years of age. His widow survived him less than a year, her death occurring on April 21, 1881, she then being but twenty-eight years of age. By the death of these parents four small children were left orphaned. Of these Mrs. Thomas was the eldest, the others being Ira Astor, who lives at Jamestown, this county ; Cary, who lives on a farm in the Paintersville neighborhood in this county, and Melissa, wife of Guy L. Harner, of Xenia.   88 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO   After the death of Mr. and Mrs. Curry their children were taken in charge by kinsfolk in this county and Mrs. Thomas was reared in the home of her mother's brother, Levi H. Smith, where she was living at the time of her marriage to Mr. Thomas.   SILAS OPDYKE HALE.   Silas Opdyke Hale, former clerk of the common pleas court and for the past four years or more deputy county auditor, one of the most agreeable and accommodating officials that ever served in the Greene county court house, is a native son of Greene county and has lived here practically all his life, a member of two of the oldest families in the county, both the Hales and the Opdykes having been among the earliest settlers hereabout, the Hales, indeed, having been here even before Greene county was created a civic unit, thus being accounted among the real pioneer families of this section of the state of Ohio.   The Hales are of English stock and are a far-flung family, the present descendants of the various immigrants of that name who settled in this country in colonial clays now being a numerous and widely scattered connection throughout the United States. The progenitor of the Greene county branch of the family was James Hale, who was born in England in the year 1737 and who with his wife, Catherine Baird, born in 1741, of Welsh stock, came to the American colonies in order to enjoy a religious freedom denied to them in their own country. James Hale was a follower of George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, and upon his arrival on this side he established his home in what he thought was a part of the Penn grant, but when the disputed boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland was settled by the establishment of the Mason and Dixon line in 1767, he found that he was in the Baltimore tract in what is now Baltimore county, Maryland. In order therefore to be in actual geographic connection with his Quaker friends he moved over the line and took up his abode at the foot of Tushey mountain on the Juniata river, in what is now Blair county, Pennsylvania, As that settlement began to fill up, with true pioneer instinct he moved with his family clown into Kentucky and settled in Mason county, where he spent his last days, his death occurring there in 1801 at his home on Clarks run, in the Bryant Station neighborhood, nine miles from Maysville. In the following year, 1802, his widow came up into this part of Ohio with her son John, who had previously bought a tract of land here, and here she spent her last days. James and Catherine (Baird) Hale were the parents of eight children, Rebecca, Joseph, Lydia, John, Hannah, James, Thomas and Silas. As most of these children married and reared families of their own, it is   GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 89   readily realized that the Hale connection in this generation is a numerous one.   John Hale, the second son and fourth child of the earnest Quaker couple whose coming to this country is above set forth, was born on November 25, 1775, and was well grown when his parents moved with their family from Pennsylvania to Kentucky. He married Sarah Bowen, who was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, and in 1801, the year of their father's death, came up into the. then Territory of Ohio and bought a tract of government land in what later came to be organized as Sugarcreek township, Greene county, and in 1802 moved up and established his home there, on the west half of the southeast quarter of section 3, township 2, range 6, thus becoming one of the real pioneers of Greene county. When John Hale and his wife came here they were accompanied by their two small sons, James and Bowen, and in the following year another son, Silas, was born to them. The mother Of these children died in 1814 and on June 29, 1815, John Hale married Sarah Lewis: To this second union were born ten children, Harmon, Rhoda, Nancy, Lewis, Rachel, John, Riley, Sarah, David and Martha. After he had made a clearing on his place John Hale established there a tannery, but in 1838 he sold his place and moved to Kosciusko county, Indiana, where he .spent his last days, his death occurring .there on September 25, 1845, he then being sixty-nine years and ten months, of age. When he left Greene county he sold his place in the Bellbrook neighborhood to William Husten, who later sold it to David John, from whom it was bought by Silas Hale, son of the original owner, and thus came back into the possession of the Hale family. During the War of 1812 John Hale, the pioneer, rendered service as a member of Capt. Ammi Maltbie's company of Ohio militia, -serving for three months following the news of the 'surrender of Hull at Detroit.   Silas Hale, son of John and Sarah (Bowen) Hale. the pioneers, was born on the home place in the neighborhood of where Bellbrook later came to be established, August 26, 1803, and there grew up amid typical pioneer conditions, helpful as a boy in his father's tanyard. When seventeen years of age he went to Wilmington, where he learned the cabinet-making trade, and three years later returned to Bellbrook and there set up a cabinet-making shop of his own, making a general line of furniture and also making the coffins needful in the community. Ten years later, in 1833, in association with his father:he started' a general store at Bellbrook and when five years later his father moved to Indiana he became sole proprietor of the store and thus continued in business at that place practically all the rest of his life, his death occurring there, June 20, 1889, not long after his retirement from business. Silas Hale had- served his community in various official   90 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO   capacities. In 1839 he was elected treasurer of Sugarcreek township and for more than forty years held that office, finally resigning the same. In 1855,. during the administration of Franklin Pierce, he was appointed postmaster of Bellbrook and held that commission for thirty-one years and two months, or until retired during the first Cleveland administration. In 1854 he was elected justice of the peace in and for his home township and for some years. served in. that important magisterial capacity. In 1840 he united with the Methodist Protestant communion and was for years a member of the board of trustees and also a member of the board of stewards of his local congregation at Bellbrook. Fraternally, he was a Mason and an Odd Fellow and in these relations took .the same earnest and serviceable interest that marked all his relations with his fellow men, and when he died at the ripe old age of eighty-six years there were many warm tributes paid to his memory in the community in which he had so long and s0 faithfully labored.   On July 20, 1830, in his home township, Silas Hale was united in marriage to Miriam Opdyke, who was horn on February 5, 1814, sixth in order of birth of the ten children born to Henry and Catherine (Cummings) Opdyke, natives of New Jersey and pioneers of Greene county, the other children of that pioneer family having been Electa, Mary Ann, Peninah, Clarissa, Martha, George, Louisa, Emily Jane and Oliver Perry. The Opdykes are of Dutch descent, the first of this branch of the family to come to America from Holland having settled in New Jersey, where Henry Opdyke was horn on November 16, 1774. Some time after his marriage Henry Opdyke came to Ohio and established his home in Sugarcreek township, this county, where on January 23, 1825, he accidentally met his death, being struck on the head by a mattock which fell into a well on the bottom of which he was working. The brick house erected by him on his farm. just northwest of the village of Bellbrook is still standing. His widow survived him for nearly thirty years, her death occurring on November 1, 1854. Silas Hale's widow also survived him for years, her death occurring at the home of her son, Francis G. Hale, in Dayton, Ohio, May 30, 1910. To Silas and Miriam (Opdyke) Hale were born ten children, of whom the subject of this biographical sketch was the last born, the others being as follows : Dorinda, who married Dr. J. R. Brelsford; John C., who moved to Indiana and made his home on a farm in Adams county, that state; Mary Jane, who married James Hartsook, of Caesarscreek township; Henry H., .a veteran of the Civil War and formerly engaged in the mercantile business at Bellbrook, now living retired at Xenia; Bowen, who went to the front as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War, a member of Company D, Seventy-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and died at Camp Chase, while in service, April 22, 1862 ; Angeline, who died in 1848, at the age of three years ; James R.,   91 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO   formerly editor of the Spring Valley Blade., and now document clerk in the state library at Columbus, Ohio, and Melancthon, who died in the fall of 1872, he than being twenty-two years of age.   Silas Opdyke Hale, last born of the children of Silas and Miriam (Opdyke) Hale, was born at Bellbrook on March 9, 1858, and received his early schooling in the excellent schools of his home village, after supplementing the same by a course in the National Normal University at Lebanon, this state, meanwhie occupying his summers for a few years by working at the carpenter trade and his winters by teaching school in the schools of his home township. When the Sugarcreek high school was established Mr. Hale was made first principal of the same, at the same time being made superintendent of the township school. While thus serving Mr. Hale became one of the most active promoters in the work of organizing the Ohio State Township Superintendents Association and was elected first president of the same, afterward serving successively as secretary and as treasurer of the association. He also served for one year as a member of the executive committee of the Greene County Teachers Association and was chosen to preside over the Teachers' Summer Institute. He then was elected president of the teachers' association and as such again conducted the Teachers' Summer Institute, which was declared one of the most popular ever held in Xenia. In 1900 Mr. Hale resigned his position as superintendent of his home township schools in order to enter upon the duties of the office of clerk of the court of common pleas for Greene county, to which office he had been elected in that year as the nominee of the Republican party, and by successive re-elections he served in that office until 1909, after which he resumed his educational labors. In August, 1911, Mr. Hale went to California and was there engaged for two years as principal of the South San Diego school. He later returned, to Xenia and in October, 1913, was appointed deputy county auditor, a position he ever since has occupied.   Mr. Hale has been twice married. On November 29, 1881, at Bellbrook, lie was united in marriage to Anna M. Gibbons, who also was born in that village, daughter of Thomas Gibbons and wife, and to that union was born one child, a daughter, Minnie Miriam, who on June I I, 1913, married Harvey A. Wegener and now lives at Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, her husband being there engaged as head of the porcelain department of the great Westinghouse works. Mr. and Mrs. Wegener have two children, Silas Hale Wegener, born on June 24, 1914, and Anna Elizabeth, January 1,, 1917. Mrs. Anna Hale died at. South San Diego, California, on June 4, 1913, and on October 19, 1914, at Xenia, Mr. Hale married Mabel Graham, daughter of Prof. George J. Graham and wife, the former of whom was for twenty-five years principal of the high school at Xenia and later superintendent of   92 - GREENE. COUNTY, OHIO.   the city schools and a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Hale have a very pleasant home at Xenia. Mr. Hale was formerly an Odd Fellow and an Elk and is now a member of the Masonic order at Xenia. Ever since the days of his boyhood he has taken an active part in local political affairs and has rendered service as a member of the Republican county central committee. During his residence at Bellbrook he was for ten years treasurer of Sugarcreek township and was also for several terms treasurer of the village of Bellbrook, as well as a. member of the village council. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mrs. Hale was graduated from the Xenia high school and from Antioch College, for some time taught school in Xenia and. vicinity and was a member of the high school faculty at Washington Court House at the time of her marriage to Mr. Hale.   CHARLES L. SPENCER.   The biographer knows of no better epitome of the life work and of the services to this community of the late Charles L. Spencer than that contained in the closing paragraphs of the memorial resolutions adopted by the Greene County Bar Association and presented to Mr. Spencer's widow and daughter following the death of that lamented gentleman in the spring of 1917. The members of the committee which prepared these resolutions, M. J. Hartley, H. L. Smith and W. F. Trader, were fellow attorneys of the departed member of the Bar Association and the words which they framed to meet the call of the association bear the stamp of sincerity and loving fellow feeling that cannot be mistaken. After reviewing Mr. Spencer's busy from the days of his boyish struggles to obtain an education which would fit him for that position in life to which he felt he was entitled and for Which he felt he was innately qualified, these resolutions continue :   In these years he enjoyed a large and varied practice of the law in both the state and federal courts,: acting as counsel in many important cases. He was a most industrious and indefatigable worker on his cases. While he was slow and deliberate in forming judgment or reaching conclusion, yet when he made a decision or formed a theory he was most tenacious as to that justice of his cause, and if defeated at first he rarely abandoned a case until ,it was determined by the court of last resort. He was an efficient and capable lawyer in counsel and as an advocate before the court and was effective and forceful in the application of the law.   In the laws of real estate, wills, taxation and corporations he was deeply versed, as the records of this court bear witness to the many litigated questions concerning these subjects in which he was counsel. His experience and ability 'in business and business affairs were prominent and useful to him in the practice of the law.   He lived the life of the ideal lawyer. His large library in his office and his extensive collection of books on many topics in his home testify to his love of learning.   His early life on the farm, his struggle for a higher education, his experience as a   GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 93   teacher, his happy home life surrounded by his books, his extensive law practice, his activities in the business world, his devotion to the college of his youth and constant work for and support of his church, his services in behalf of the Law Library Association, and finally his decline and peaceful passing after but a few hours of illness, with his family about him and his life's work finished, together constitute a type of life peculiar to this country ; not unusual, but which novelists love to depict and pulicists to portray, as illustrative of American life at its best.   We shall miss his deliberate walk, his thoughtful speech, his cheerful and pleasant greetings for his fellow members, his slow and measured arguments in court—the daily contact, all with regret, but with the reflection that he lived life to its fullness and completed his task ; a life of industry, varied in activeness and of unusual contact with people of affairs.   To the family we extend the sympathy of the bar and request that this memorial be spread on the minutes of this court and a copy sent to his widow and daughter.   Charles L. Spencer was a native of Ohio, born in the city of Newark on April 4, 1848, a son of Newton and Lucinda J. (Trickey) Spencer, the former a native of New York state, born in Herkimer county in January, 1816, but who was reared in Oswego county, that state, whence, at the age of eighteen years, he came to Ohio and located in Licking county, where he became variously employed, eventually becoming the operator of a grist-and saw-mill and later of a stone quarry. In 1846, in that county, Newton Spencer was united in marriage to Lucinda J. Trickey, whose parents had come to Ohio from Pennsylvania, and ten years later, in 1856, moved with his family to Iowa and settled on a farm in Decatur county, that state, where he and his wife spent their last days, his death occurring there in 189o, he then being seventy-four years of age, and hers, in 1901, she having been eighty years of age at the time of her death. They were the parents of six children, of whom but three reached the age of maturity, the subject of this memorial sketch having had a brother, Albert G. Spencer, a resident of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and a sister, Mrs. Mary F. Hampton, of Van Wert, Iowa, the latter of whom now alone survives.   Charles L. Spencer was but eight years of age when his parents moved from Ohio to Iowa and on the pioneer home farm in this latter state he grew to manhood, one hundred and fifty miles from a railroad and with but few school privileges, but in a community of fine and intelligent people. Although able to attend school but a few months in a year, he read every book he could obtain in the sparsely settled community and thus gradually grew in wisdom. Among these books was Chapin's "Duties of Young Men," which so stimulated his ambition to seek a way to further education and culture that he determined to secure the benefit of schooling at any sacrifice of self, and at the age of eighteen he returned to the state of his nativity and entered Ohio Wesleyan University, having been able to make an arrangement whereby he could work his way through college. Five years later, in 1872, his course having been impeded by the necessities of working for the funds requisite to   94 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO   the completion of the course, he was graduated from that institution with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, to which his alma mater later added the degree of Master of Arts. Having determined upon the legal profession as a calling, Mr. Spencer, within a month after leaving college, began the study of .law in the office of. English & Baldwin at Columbus, Ohio. He had been teaching school as a means to obtaining funds for his college course and the winter following his entrance into the law office taught another term. In the fall of 1873 he was appointed to the position of principal of the Xenia high school and there and then formed associations and friendships which he held dear to the end of his life, from that time regarding Xenia as his home. During the periods of his vacations Mr. Spencer continued his study of the law and at the close of the school year ill 1875 went to Cincinnati, where he finished his reading in the office of .Noyes & Lloyd and was admitted to the practice of law by the supreme court of Ohio in October of that year. In the following January he was offered a partnership in the office of the late Judge James E. Hawes at Xenia and accepted the same, that relation continuing for a year. In 1878 Mr. Spencer formed a partnership with W. J. Alexander which continued until 1884, during which period, 1881-82, he served as prosecuting attorney for Greene county. In the latter part of 1886 Mr. Spencer entered into a partnership with the late John Little, under the firm style of Little & Spencer, which arrangement continued' until the death of Mr. Little in the fall of 1900, after which Mr. Spencer maintained his office alone, continuing actively engaged in practice, with offices in the Allen building, until his death, which occurred on April 5, 1917. Mr. Spencer was a member of the Greene County Law Library Association and was librarian of the same at the time of his death. He was for several years secretary and assistant manager of the Field Cordage Company and had interests in other local concerns. He was for many years county and city school examiner. In his political views he was a stanch Republican, but never would respond to the overtures of his friends in the way of seeking public office. For years he was a trustee of the First Methodist Episcopal church and was for many years a teacher in the Sunday school of the same.   On December 24, 1885, at Xenia, Charles L. Spencer was united in marriage to. Luella Currie, who was born in that city, a daughter of Andrew H. and Lavina (Forbes) Currie, and to that union was born one child, a daughter, Anna. Both Mrs. Spencer and her daughter have taken an active part in the missionary work and in the Sunday school work of the First Methodist Episcopal church and in the work of the Young Women's. Christian Association. Miss Anna Spencer was graduated from the Xenia high school and from Ohio Wesleyan University and for several years was engaged as a teacher in the high school at Hope, Indiana, until her recent marriage to   GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 95   Orin G. Ledbetter, who is connected with the Firestone Tire Company of Akron, Ohio.   Mrs. Spencer's father, Andrew H. Currie, who is still living, making his home with his daughter in Xenia, was born' in this county on November 14, 1831, and is therefore now past eighty-six years of age. He is of Scotcn stock and his parents, James and Mary Currie, came to this county from Rockbridge county, Virginia, in the days of the pioneers. The latter was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and .was but twelve years of age when she came to the United States with her parents. James Currie was a farmer and after a residence of years in this county moved over into Indiana, where his last days were spent. His wife died in this county. After his marriage to Lavina Forbes, Andrew H. Currie established his home in Xenia and has ever since lived there. His wife died in January, 1913, she then being eighty years of age. For more than sixty year Mr. Currie has been a teacher in the Sunday school of the First Methodist Episcopal church. He also for many years served as a member of the board of trustees of the church. To him and his wife were born six children, one of whom died in infancy, the others besides Mrs. Spencer being Kate, widow of G. M. Landaker, who, with her daughter Katharine, is now making her home with Mrs. Spencer ; Anna, who married J. F. Orr and resides at Kansas City, Missouri; Emma, wife of Charles Orr, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Walter, who is with the Kelly Cordage Company at Xenia.   COMMANDER CHARLES EARL SMITH, U. S. N.   In making up the list of those sons of Greene county who have represented this county creditably in far fields and whose actions have added to the luster of the county's fair name, it is but fitting that some special mention should be made of one of these sons whose rise in the navy has been the occasion of much congratulation on the part of his many friends here and whose service in that arm of the nation's defense in the present (1918) struggle is contributing valiantly to the world's common cause. Charles Earl Smith, commander in the United States navy, now (1918) in command of the United States destroyer "Nicholson," stationed in the submarine zone in British waters, was born at Xenia in 1881, a son of Judge Horace L. Smith and wife, a biographical sketch of the former of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume.   Reared at Xenia, Charles Earl Smith received his early schooling in the schools of that city and upon completing the course in the high school received the appointment from this congressional district as a cadet in tile United States. Naval Academy at Annapolis, from which he was graduated   96 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO   as an ensign in 1903. During his term of study in the Naval Academy he "starred" in athletics, particularly on the "gridiron," he having played quarterback on the navy team during the seasons of 1901 and 1902. Upon receiving his title of ensign he was assigned to the cruiser "New York," and during the next two seasons helped to coach the navy football team. During the -fleet's celebrated trip around Cape Horn he was stationed on a torpedo-boat destroyer, which, though not built for long trips, got through all right; and after the completion of that memorable voyage he was assigned to the Pacific fleet and did duty along the California coast until 1915, when, meanwhile having been advanced to the grade of first lieutenant, he was given command of a flotilla of submarines and was at Honolulu at the time the ill-fated submarine 4 was lost in the harbor there, to him falling the duty of raising the same. After that tragic experience Lieutenant Smith obtained shore leave and was assigned to special service at the Naval Academy, in charge of athletics, and was thus in service at the time war was declared against Germany in the spring of 1917, with the rank of lieutenant-commander, in charge of the training of marines for petty officers ; later was raised to the rank of commander, and is now (1918) engaged in convoying transports carrying soldiers and provisions to and from England and France and on the lookout for German submarines. Commander Smith has also rendered service in the army, he having been a member of the First Ohio Cavalry, doing service during the Spanish-American War, and was stationed in camp at Chickamauga at the time he received his appointment as a cadet to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, obtaining a furlough in order that he might take the examination necessary to qualify for the latter service.   SAMUEL STEELE DEAN.   Samuel Steele Dean, proprietor of "The Elms," was born on the farm on which he is now living, five miles east of Xenia on the Jamestown pike, in New. Jasper township, and has lived there all his life. He was born on April 17, 1850, son of Joseph and Hannah (Boggs) Dean, the former of whom was born in Kentucky and the latter in Ohio, who had established their home on that farm shortly after their marriage in 1826 and who spent the remainder of their lives there.   Joseph Dean was born in Montgomery county, Kentucky, December 31, 1804, son of Daniel and Jeannete (Steele) Dean, the former of whom was born in Londonderry, Ireland, in 1765, and was nineteen years of age when he came to the United States, settling first in New York and then in Virginia, where he presently married, and later moving to Kentucky, whence he moved ,up into Ohio and located in Greene county, where he spent the   GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 97   remainder of his life. He was the only son of Roger and Mary Dean, residents of Londonderry and stanch Seceders, the former of whom, after the birth of his son Daniel and a daughter, came to America with a view to setting up a home for his family on this side of the water, but who, through some cause never explained to his family, was lost before he could follow out his design. When nineteen years of age his son Daniel came to this side and presently was joined by his mother and sister, the family for a time making their home in New York and then going to Virginia, whence they moved to Kentucky and from there to Ohio, Mary Dean spending her last days here, her death occurring on June 21, 1825, she then being eighty-five years of age. It was about the year 1785 that Daniel Dean, who in Virginia had married Jeannete Steele, who was born in Augusta county, that state, moved with his wife and his mother from Virginia to Kentucky and settled at Winchester, in the latter state, where he erected a mill and in the vicinity of which place he bought a farm. There eleven children were born to him and his wife. They were Seceders and were so averse to rearing their children on slave soil that in April, 1812, they disposed of their interests in Kentucky and moved up into Ohio, locating in Greene county. Here Daniel Dean bought about two thousand acres of wilderness land in New Jasper township and established his home. He died there in 1842, at the age of seventy-seven years. His wife died when seventy-three years of age.   Having been but eight years of age when he came with his parents to Greene county in 1812, Joseph Dean grew up on the home farm in New Jasper township and received his schooling at Xenia, walking six miles night and morning to do so. He remained on the home farm until his marriage on November 6, 1826, to Hannah Boggs, who was born in Jackson county, this .state, a. daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth Boggs, who later moved to Gallia county, where she grew to young womanhood. Andrew Boggs was a cattle buyer and drover, who later moved from Ohio to Kosciuski county, Indiana, where the family is still represented. After their marriage Joseph Dean and his wife started housekeeping in a house on the west edge of Cedarville, but presently he bought a tract of one hundred and fifty acres from his father, just south of the Jamestown pike, in New Jasper township, and there began farming on his own account, spending the rest of his life there. He added to his holdings until he became the owner of four hundred and ninety-eight acres in New Jasper township. About 1841 he built a large brick house which is still standing on the farm. He erected a large barn in 1846.. Reared a Seceder, after the "union" Joseph Dean joined the First United Presbyterian church at Xenia, as did his wife, who was reared a Methodist. During ante-bellum days Joseph Dean was an ardent Abolitionist and upon the organization of the Republican party became   (6)   98 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO   an adherent of the principles of the same. He died on September 14, 1883. The death of his widow occurred on March 7, 1888. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the last-born, the others being the following: Washington, born on August 10, 1827, who died at the age of twenty-six years ; Julia Ann, April 27, 1829, who married William Strouthers and moved to Monmouth, Illinois, where her last days were spent; Daniel Milton, May 19, 1831, who for years was engaged in farming in Cedarville township and who upon his retirement from the farm moved to Cedarville, where he died on December 1, 1912 ; Louisa, who died in infancy; Willis, who also died in infancy; Lewis Henry, March 5, 1838, who served as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War, a member of the Ninety-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and who later moved to Pawnee county, Nebraska, where he died in February, 1917; Ann Lavina, February 16, 1840, who married S. W. Oldham and is now living at Dayton; Judge Joseph Newton Dean, August 22, 1842, a veteran of the Civil War (Company B, Fortieth Ohio Volunteer Regiment), formerly judge of probate for Greene county and for years a lawyer at Xenia, who died on January 18, 1913 ; Eliza Jane, August 9, 1844, who married the Rev. Andrew Renwick, a minister of the United Presbyterian church, and who died in April, 1882, and Mary Campbell, August 9, 1847, who married J. N. Wright and who since the death of her husband has been making her home with her daughter at Detroit, Michigan.   Samuel Steele Dean was baptized in infancy by the Rev. R. D. Harper, D. D., and at the age of fourteen, years, in October, 1864, united with the First United Presbyterian church at Xenia, with the congregation of which he has since been affiliated. Reared on the home farm, he received his early schooling in the district school in the neighborhood of his home, supplementing the same by a course in the old Xenia College on East Church street, and later took a course in a business college at Indianapolis. In the meantime he continued his labors on the farm during the summer vacation periods and after a while began farming "on the shares" for his father, continuing thus engaged until after his marriage in the spring of 1876, when he bought from his father the farm where he is now living. Mr. Dean's original purchase at "The Elms" was a tract of eighty-two acres, to which he has gradually added until now he is the owner of a farm of three hundred and fifty acres in New Jasper township. In 1898 he erected his present dwelling house, one of the finest brick country houses in the county; setting well back from the highway and approached by way of a lane, the entrance to which is guarded by an attractive stone gateway. In addition to his general farming Mr. Dean has for years given much attention to the breeding of fine horses, Percherons being his specialty, and in this connec-   GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 99   tion has done much to improve the strain of draft horses in this part of the state. He also feels about three hundred hogs annually. Mr. Dean is a Republican.   Mr. Dean has been twice married. While on a visit to Olathe, Kansas, in the winter of 1874-75 he there met Sadie J. Thompson, of that place, and on March 2, 1876, the Reverend Wilkin, of Olathe, officiating, was united in marriage to her. She was born in Randolph county, Illinois, August 11, 1848, daughter of Andrew M. and Margaret (Day) Thompson, who moved from Illinois to Olathe, Kansas, in March, 1864. In this latter place Sadie J. Thompson united with the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) church in September, 1865. During the years 1870-73 she taught public school in Kansas and from 1873 until her marriage in 1876 kept house for her father. Upon coming to Greene county with her husband she united, in October, 1877, with the First United Presbyterian church and remained a faithful member of the same until her death on December 14, 1890, she then being forty-two years, four months and three days of age. That union was without issue. On December 17, 1891, Mr. Dean married Fannie E. Scott, who was born in the neighboring county of Warren, daughter of Vincent and Elizabeth Scott, the former of whom was engaged in mechanical trades at Lebanon, and to this union have been horn four children, S. Arthur, Robert Southwick, Leslie Scott and Elizabeth Hannah, all of whom are still at home. S. Arthur Dean, who is now operating his father's farm, was graduated from Cedarville College and later from Miami University, after which he took a year of special work in the agricultural department of the State University at Columbus. Robert S. Dean also was graduated from Miami University and later turned his attention to the study of medicine, being now (1918) in his fourth year at the Western Reserve Medical School at Cleveland. Leslie S. Dean is now a student at Cedarville College in his junior year, and Elizabeth H. Dean. is a senior in the preparatory department of Cedarville College. It is but fitting to note in connection with this mention of the Dean family in Greene county that all the eleven children of the pioneer, Daniel Dean, grew to maturity, married and had large families of their own. There were thirty-six members of the family who served as soldiers of the Union during the Civil War and all continued in service throughout their respective terms of enlistment and returned home, with the exception of one who died at the front. The late Judge Joseph N. Dean, brother of the subject of this sketch, enlisted on August 17, 1861, and was mustered out on October 17, 1864. During the battle of Chickamauga he was slightly wounded in the face. He had there aided in capturing three pieces of artillery, for which conspicuous act of bravery he was recommended for a commission.